Seems like I’ve heard a lot of versions of love and peace that say you have to begin with yourself. Ghandi said, “You have to be the change you wish to see in the world.” I think it is Confucius who says that peace in the heart begets peace in the family, peace in the family begets peace in the city, peace in the city begets peace in the nation, and that peace in the nation begets peace in the world. There is the song that says “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
That all sounds so mysterious—so abstract, so impossible. If I get peaceful, the world will get peaceful? If I get more loving, the world will get more loving? However, I see how hard it is to be loving and peaceful as soon as some minor annoyance pushes one of my buttons. I don’t respond exactly with hate, but it isn’t love either—mini-hate maybe? Or just everyday, mundane, lack of love? So I try to be more loving while trying to love myself when I fail. I can’t say that I’m terrifically successful. It’s a crazy theory.
If I were “perfectly” loving, I’d probably be a self-righteous, obnoxious bitch. Do our mini-struggles with love and hate, teach us about the larger struggles of love and hate in the world? I think so, but the lesson is a difficult one to understand.
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